yet another 939 quandry !

[Sareth]

I have a 3500+ running at stock on an Asus A8N-SLI deluxe with 2gb of ram + 6600gt.

With 939 gasping its last breath I'm wondering (like many others) wether to upgrade my cpu while I can or clean the shop down completely.

I was thinking of popping an opteron in and upgrading to a 8600gt when they appear to preserve mb and ram.
Or could I get away with just the 8600gt in the short term and clean the lot down except for the 8600 in 6-9 months or so ?

 

[4T5]

Depends on what you use your system for, if gaming is your thing then just upgrading your GFX card and clocking your chip will last you a fair while. If multi tasking is your bag then Dual is the way forward.

 

[Mono]

i was thinking the same with my comp

Decided to upgrade processor to Ath 4800+ and leave the gfx cards until ATi release their new dx10 cards... should knock down the prices a fair bit!

closer to when the next processors are out ill do a full sys upgrade

 

[gt_junkie]

If it's just for gaming you could just get an 8600 and overclock the 3500+ as far as you can. That would give you a healthy increase. With decent cooling there's no reason that chip couln't get to 2.6ghz - maybe even 2.8ish if it's a good one!

If you plan to multitask then a conroe set up might be the way to go if you're happy to split the gfx, cpu and mobo and sell. You can get conroe mobo's that use ddr1 so could retain that if you wanted. That would be the fastest option plus conroes generally overclock very well!

If you don't want to split it all but do want dual core then an opteron 165 is probably your best bet! I just upgraded to one from a 3800+ X2 (yes dual core aswell - got it as the X2 would only clock to 2.5ghz) and have it running at 2.8ghz @ 1.36v. It does all i need an work's very well along side my 7950GX2 (similar performance to an 8800gts 640mb) and 22" belinea monitor! Simple and cheap upgrade!

gt

 

[Sareth]

Depends on what you use your system for, if gaming is your thing then just upgrading your GFX card and clocking your chip will last you a fair while. If multi tasking is your bag then Dual is the way forward.

Pretty much just gaming now, I use my Mac for most day to day stuff where I'll have multiple apps running, just want to give it a little boost for this years pc games really.

 

[gt_junkie]

Pretty much just gaming now, I use my Mac for most day to day stuff where I'll have multiple apps running, just want to give it a little boost for this years pc games really.

Clock the nadgers off the 3500+ then - the Asus mobo you have will have no problems getting it up to a decent speed! What cooler do you have?

gt

 

[Sareth]

Clock the nadgers off the 3500+ then - the Asus mobo you have will have no problems getting it up to a decent speed! What cooler do you have?

gt

Good question, at work and cant remember exact model, tis an arctic cooling unit with a 92mm overhead fan (thanks memory, that really helped )

 

[4T5]

Pretty much just gaming now, I use my Mac for most day to day stuff where I'll have multiple apps running, just want to give it a little boost for this years pc games really.

Well i would get yourself a decent CPU cooler and improve your case airflow then clock the bejesus out of that chip. I would also buy a 2nd hand 1950 preferably a Sapphire . This will make an ideal gaming rig for quite some time,
I run a clocked 3500 with Freezer 64 fitted & a 7800GS+ which for gaming is more than adequate. This will be a fairly cheap upgrade and will perform very well in games.
You can then save your money until the competition brings the prices of Dual core and DX10 hardware down.


p.s My mobo is also an Asus A8v, very easy to clock with.

 

[Sareth]

Thanks for the advice folks.

As I dont have the details to hand I think I'm going to do some checking when I get home on my cpu and see how much potential it has and make the decision based off that.

 

[bfar]

If you're thinking about clearing house, you might as well get exactly what you want now. A half measure/tideover will usually disapoint...

 

[Sareth]

If you're thinking about clearing house, you might as well get exactly what you want now. A half measure/tideover will usually disapoint...

...but a full blown clean house will complete a nasty downward curve of spending guilt that started with a new monitor, swept downwards through a new mac, continued to fall with a new set of speakers, then there was the wii launch, then christmas....